How does the Xanathar Guild make its money?

[Unoriginal]

The Xanathar Guild is one of the imposing criminal organizations of Waterdeep, if not the most. Yet, reading Dragon Heist, it wasn't exactly clear to me what activities they indulged in to make a profit.

Without spoiler, the book mentions the Guild as having theft, burglary and kidnapping for a ransom on the "earning money" side of things, as well as sometime killing people and getting city officials under its thumb (which do not land them any particular profits, contrarily to, say, the Zenth's assassination business). On top of that,the Xanathar itself has some vanity/recreational projects.

They do not seem to engage in smugling, selling illegal goods or drugs, maintaining a protection racket, running a prostitution ring, casinos or the like, acting as loan sharks, or the other activities one might associate with organised crimes, or at least not in surface Waterdeep (what they do in Skullport might be quite different).

Is the Xanathar Guild more of a traditional Thieves' Guild, in contrast to the Zentharim's more "mobsters and espionnage" way of doing things? Or is it just they didn't put everything in the book because it was not relevant?

[BaconAwesome]

The Forgotten Realms wiki entries suggest primarily slavery (capturing and trading, with the trading being in the Skullport market), plus theft, extortion, and espionage.

Between having some fairly effective law enforcement and the completion from the Zentaurim, I'm the Xanathar Guild uses its information gathering abilities to identify specific opportunities - individuals who can be safely blackmailed, controlled, or captured and sold, promising targets for robberies, specific jobs for hire, etc.

[ZorroGames]

Since The Xanathar is not a human, profit in the fiscal sense is a necessary boring mundane detail one have servants for?

What motivates a Crime Lord Beholder may not be the same a Crime Lord Dwarf (Gold,) Elf (Gems?) or Human.

[Unoriginal]

Since The Xanathar is not a human, profit in the fiscal sense is a necessary boring mundane detail one have servants for?

What motivates a Crime Lord Beholder may not be the same a Crime Lord Dwarf (Gold,) Elf (Gems?) or Human.

Well, the Xanathar likes living a luxury life, and most of its underlings are motivated to join by putting a lot of shinies in their pockets.

[ciarannihill]

I was under the impression that it was mostly theft (of both coin and valuable items), extortion, and information brokering. I could be mistaken, but how it's been characterized that's what I had assumed was their core enterprise.